Magazine article from the June 2012 issue of the NOISE arts & news magazine (thenoise.us) about Tom Lescher and New Paradigm Astrology

It’s no secret: big change is coming our way. It is, after all, the infamous year 2012 and although the world isn’t going to end in doomsday and destruction, the world-as-we-know-it already is. The status quo? Finito. Business as usual? In the red. Everything is pushing us to change, to evolve. The ball’s in our court now; evolution has become a personal thing, and according to evolutionary astrologer Tom Lescher, the blueprint is in the stars.

Having practiced astrology for over 35 years, Mr. Lescher’s brand of zodiacal study, known as New Paradigm Astrology “uses a combination of all the planetary energies to reflect your own inner soul path and align your conscious ego with your unconscious spiritual soul intention. It is a means of coming into collaboration with a bigger agenda of your ultimate destiny.”

What this means, to evolutionary astrologers like Mr. Lescher, is that astrology is a science of the soul, not just entertainment for the ego. Horoscopes and sun-sign astrology take into account only one tiny piece of the celestial energies, and usually cater to our egoic sense of personality and self. Evolutionary astrology, on the other hand, looks at the grand world view and pushes us to move beyond our usual tendencies to become greater beings following our own soul’s path. Each of the celestial bodies, the planets and major asteroids, represents a particular energy, and, in Mr. Lescher’s words, “Astrology is just blending archetypes together.”

Mr. Lescher has done many things along his path: he’s raised a family, designed computers, built houses, been a Waldorf schoolteacher, and has studied astrology since a fateful day in his late teens when a neighbor read his chart and blew his mind.

However, it’s only been in the last 5 or 6 years that his practice has deepened in its nuance and he’s been able to make a living of it. (Not coincidentally, he began a regular practice of Kundalini yoga around the same time, which made a huge shift in his whole reality, including his astrological practice and understanding.)

What Mr. Lescher would like us to know is that everybody on Earth is part of the greater agenda. Planetary energies are pushing us to unity consciousness, breaking up structures of external authority and prompting us to release deep-seated fears and problems in order to become people of higher integrity and greater transparency within the world. Evolutionary astrology gives us a guide with which to navigate these often unknown territories.

In May, I attended a lecture in Sedona where Mr. Lescher spoke to the “Astrology of Now.” He focused on the transpersonal planets: Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto (plus Black Moon Lilith, but we’ll get to that later). These planets move slowly through the Solar System, spending more time in each sign than the closer, faster moving planets.

Mr. Lescher is easygoing (but what else would you expect from a resident of hawaii?), his astrological descriptions accessible, and his sense of humor sharp. Here follows his view of the current planetary energies and what they mean for us on our evolutionary path.

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Let’s start with Pluto. Though no longer an official planet, thanks to a demotion to “dwarf planet” in 2006, Pluto still packs a huge astrological punch. Despite being tiny, dark, icy, and distant, Pluto’s archetype is powerful,
with an astrological energy that cannot be ignored.

Mythologically, Pluto is the Greek God of the Underworld, and Pluto’s planetary energy represents transformation and transmutation through dealing with forces beyond our human control. As we relate to such grand forces as death, government, and nature, we transform into something greater than what we were before. Sometimes terrifying, the Plutonic force annihilates. Mr. Lescher clarifies: “Pluto is the force of evolution in your chart. When it comes around, it removes anything in the way of you evolving.”

Since 2008, Pluto has been in Capricorn, and will be until 2024. The sign of Capricorn represents structure, integrity, rules, external authority, and the law. Succinctly said, Pluto in Capricorn is going to remove, annihilate, and wipe out the external forms of authority that we’ve depended on for so long.

Now is the time to question authority. Artificial boundaries and patriarchal, materialistic limits will be removed. This crumbling of old-time institutions (church and state, for example) needn’t be fearful, however. Mr. Lescher reminds us that this demolition is happening so that “each and every one of us will birth our own internal authority.” In short, become the author of your own life.

Blending perfectly with those (r)evolutionary energies is Uranus in the sign of Aries, affecting us from 2011 to 2018. Uranus stands for revolution, sudden changes, electric flashes of insight. It has an energy that is unpredictable and of the future.

As the first sign of the Zodiac, Aries holds an energy both youthful and exuberant; Aries is the warrior, and blazes forth into battle, sometimes leaping before it looks. The Aries archetype is also fiery and impatient, and guided by Uranus, this warrior is on the forefront, demanding that we do it now, that we “penetrate into the new and pioneer a new reality. “

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Tempering all of this, we have the planet Neptune in the sign of Pisces, which is a natural fit, because Neptune naturally rules Piscean energy to begin with. Neptune entered Pisces in early 2012 and will remain there for 14 years.

“Pisces is the void out of which all manifest creation emerges, sees itself, and comes back again,” expounds Mr. Lescher, “Pisces is the Alpha and the Omega.” It’s the last sign of the Zodiac, where all else culminates; it is the dream, the infinite spiritual potential.

The energy blends perfectly with Neptune, which represents universal love, compassion, cosmic consciousness, and the crown chakra. “Everybody’s awakening and opening,” says Mr. Lescher. “Everybody’s becoming more sensitive.” So it is no accident that people are becoming are more sensitive to environmental disturbances and are more easily stressed and overwhelmed.

Mr. Lescher confirms that: “Our sensory perception is becoming refined, we are sensing more subtle energies.” We, as a people, can no longer handle dirty air, poisoned water, sullied earth, and unclean energy. We are collectively becoming less coarse and more ethereal, and the more we occupy our subtler selves, the better we will feel.

Another symptom of Neptune-in-Pisces energy is that our boundaries are washing away and we’re “having a breakdown of separation consciousness.,” becoming more aware of everybody else’s thoughts and feelings. It’s a sort of telepathy; not of words perhaps, but of feeling.

Even the physical manifestations are obvious: constant tweets and status updates, instant texting, and the sharing and receiving of information about everything, everywhere, all the time. There’s less privacy and we’re becoming more tuned in.

“We’re going to realize,” Mr. Lescher points out, “that every thought, feeling, word, and deed affects everybody else.” And being in this place of global transparency, it’s “more and more necessary to come into alignment. We are realizing that when somebody goes down, the whole ship goes down.” Integrity and honesty are essential; there can be no secrets anymore.

That brings us to Saturn, the planet of duty, integrity, and responsibility. Saturn is the Elder. According to Mr. Lescher, “Saturn gives very clear instructions,” and if you break the rules, there will be consequences. This stern, mature energy has been dancing with Libra since October 2009, and will be until that same month in 2012.

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Libra is the sign of balance, and specifically rules over partnerships and relationships. In the most metaphysical sense, our partners are mirrors of our selves, and, by representing the “other,” they also represent what is least conscious within us. We can point fingers in blame, without realizing that we are pointing right back at our own selves. Saturn, the planetary taskmaster, is summoning us to face our shadow.

Commitment is key; well-chosen limits allow us to move deeper in one direction and Saturn is urging us to reflect and review all our written and unwritten partnership and relationship contracts. We may begin to experience lower, older energetic patterns —
the rougher, darker parts of ourselves — with the purpose of breaking those patterns up and releasing them. This is the time to commit to that which serves us in our evolutionary path, and remove that which does not. “It’s time to go the next level in relationship,” reminds Mr. Lescher. “We are preparing for union.”

When Saturn leaves Libra this fall, it will move into the sign of Scorpio. Mr. Lescher chuckles: “Compared to Saturn in Scorpio, Saturn in Libra is a walk in the park.” He elaborates: “With Libra, we’re still talking to each other; we put it on the table, get a counselor, try to come into harmony.” But with Scorpio, it becomes primal.

Scorpionic energy is passionate and deep, with Saturn in that sign bringing up issues of abandonment and betrayal. Deep fears will emerge, but as long as we are aware of what’s happening, we can face these fears, knowing they have a purpose: to be released. Saturn in Scorpio, from the end of 2012 to the end of 2014, will push us toward humility, forces us into deeper intimacy.

“This is where we merge,” Mr. Lescher explains. “This is where we get naked and are seen. This is where we are vulnerable.” The most frightening aspect of this may well be the surrender into a death of the individual ego. Mr. Lescher reinstates, “We are preparing for union.”

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Our egos, once a tool for survival, have come to rule us, using our minds as a rigid form of control. Getting out of our minds is what Black Moon Lilith is all about. Black Moon Lilith is not an actual astronomical body (although there is an asteroid by the name of Lilith, not to be confused with Black Moon); rather it is an averaged (mean) measurement of the gravitational center of the Moon’s elliptical orbit.

Mr. Lescher says Black Moon Lilith is essentially the point of the Earth, but because the Moon’s orbit is elliptical, the center of gravity is not exactly where the Earth is, so measurements are averaged and that mean point is known as Black Moon Lilith. Although Black Moon Lilith is not used in most astrological readings, Mr. Lescher holds her near and dear because he believes her energetic signature is crucial for our times.

In Biblical mythology, Lilith was the first wife of Adam, before he was given Eve to be his mate. Lilith refused to be dominated by Adam; she would not lie beneath him and would not submit to his purported male authority. Lilith simply became fed up with Adam’s machismo and left the Garden of Eden to happily live on her own. Adam then cried to God in his loneliness, and submissive Eve was created for him.

According to Mr. Lescher, Lilith represents an energy that is wild, luscious, adventurous, sensual, and independent. She represents the fiery feminine that is chaotic and can’t be controlled. Because of this, the Lilith within us all has been suppressed for millennia, and through suppression has been distorted and demonized as a type of femininity that is seductive, dark, and perverse.

But it is the true passion and independence of Lilith that we all, men and women, need to awaken within ourselves, as part of our own masculine/feminine balance. All people, men and women, have Lilith energy inside them, and with Black Moon Lilith now in Taurus, a very earthy and sensual sign, Lilith is beckoning us to get out of our minds and deep into our bodies.

Mr. Lescher urges us to be influenced by our instinctual, animal natures as well as our rational minds. “Our bodies are major instruments,” he affirms. Dance, touch, movement, and healthy sexuality all make us of our physical instrument. “When we connect with someone on a sexual level,” Mr. Lescher believes, “we are releasing the past.”

And, in his opinion, everything in astrology right now is beckoning us to release the old and no longer needed, so that we may be metaphysically and figuratively emptied, in order to be refilled with light.

Essentially, the Astrology of Now is extoling us to emerge as individuals, break down the established, external order, and drop unnecessary boundaries that have been limiting us and holding us apart.

We are being called to get deeply in touch with our bodies and our animal natures and create balance between the masculine and feminine within each of us. We must each face our deepest fears and shadow selves and release them, and embrace and embody our own wild and passionate Lilith. All of this, because, as Mr. Lescher reinstates, “We are preparing for union.”